Summer Transfer Misery and Recriminations.

[Letters]

How many more days of this do we have to go through before the window shuts? Seems like it's better to just ignore football for that period of time and tune in after the window closes to pick up the discussion on the implications of going into another season without a decent striker. Wenger not going to part with "his" money, unless some bargain bucket deal falls out of the sky and hits him on the head.

It doesn't just shut, it SLAMS shut. Get it right

[Kano]

If you look at the history, from day one there has been a reluctance to buy ready made quality. Instead you have a series of punts and cheap solutions. Even Henry was a punt, and this gets lost in the mix because of how good he became.

When you look at strikers he's bought, you have to say that most of them were cheap stop-gap types, rather than actually buying the player we need.

Anelka (unknown)
Suker (Past it, stop gap)
Wiltord (hardly top of the range)
Boa Morte
Henry
Jeffers (FFS)
Kanu (punt)
Baptiste (fat punt)
Eduardo (punt)
Podolski (cheap faded star)
Adebayor (unknown punt)
Chamakh (FFS)
Aliadiadiaidiaire (unknown)
Gervinho (Don't make me piss my pants)
Van Persie (Young unknown)
Bendtner (punt)
Park



He has a long history of being a cheapskate. Albeit, he found great players in Henry and RVP.

Absolutely, because he believes he can turn unknowns or kids into superstars, rather than doing the 'easy' thing of buying in the quality. He is a purest who believes in traditional methods of training technical abilities from the ground up. Which is probably why he believes too much in his squads because they are a reflection of himself. They mostly represent the moulding and work he believes has gone into moulding the group. But Wiltord, Reyes, Sanchez, Chambers and Xhaka are all examples of when he sees someone he believes in, he'll pay over the odds. His mantra for years has been about believing in the squad, even not adding to it when we've won titles. That hasn't changed one bit and it is the overriding factor above all others as to why he doesn't get the players we've needed for so long.

[Niall_Quinn]

Put another way, he's a delusional megalomaniac and that delusion has been reinforced by the broken clock syndrome represented by the few successes he's had - those successes being the product of exceptional individual characters rather than the result of his input.

[Niall_Quinn]

It doesn't just shut, it SLAMS shut. Get it right

I thought it fizzled out in a big long Jim White yawn, or does it only look like that and in reality it's all as exciting as Sky claims?

[Power n Glory]

Absolutely, because he believes he can turn unknowns or kids into superstars, rather than doing the 'easy' thing of buying in the quality. He is a purest who believes in traditional methods of training technical abilities from the ground up. Which is probably why he believes too much in his squads because they are a reflection of himself. They mostly represent the moulding and work he believes has gone into moulding the group. But Wiltord, Reyes, Sanchez, Chambers and Xhaka are all examples of when he sees someone he believes in, he'll pay over the odds. His mantra for years has been about believing in the squad, even not adding to it when we've won titles. That hasn't changed one bit and it is the overriding factor above all others as to why he doesn't get the players we've needed for so long.

Sanchez was a good price. About right for the market or maybe a bargain when you think about his game. We overpaid for the rest of the players you mentioned but not Sanchez. A goal scoring winger that can score 20 odd goals and 10 plus assist a season is pretty good. Aggressive on attack, no slouch and committed to defending, a match winner when the team need something special....

An unpopular opinion but I think we overpaid for Ozil. Not by much but a player that only assists, doesn't score on a regular, not aggressive on attack or consistenly threatening when on the ball, can't defend, goes missing in big games.... I expect more.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Sanchez was a good price. About right for the market or maybe a bargain when you think about his game. We overpaid for the rest of the players you mentioned but not Sanchez. A goal scoring winger that can score 20 odd goals and 10 plus assist a season is pretty good. Aggressive on attack, no slouch and committed to defending, a match winner when the team need something special....

An unpopular opinion but I think we overpaid for Ozil. Not by much but a player that only assists, doesn't score on a regular, not aggressive on attack or consistenly threatening when on the ball, can't defend, goes missing in big games.... I expect more.

You don't rate Ozil???......I never knew that

[Marc Overmars]

We definitely didn't overpay for Alexis. He had been established as a very good player for several years and was coming off the back of some decent World Cup performances. Not quite good enough for Barca's high standards but still an excellent player that would improve most teams. Don't forget Lallana went for a similar price in the same summer and you'd have to be insane to think he's anywhere near as good as Alexis.

I'd say Alexis is every bit a £30m player and more.

[Niall_Quinn]

Alexis is worth around £60-£70mill in the current market. A genuine marquee player. The 30 odd mill we paid for him was criminal, we robbed them. We just got lucky that Barca had such an excess of talent. Much the same as Madrid who could afford to let Ozil go, a player easily worth £150mill if Pogba is worth £100mill. Alexis and Ozil are obviously not typical Arsenal signings, they were the right time, right place, right price anomalies or else we'd never have signed them. Now we're hoping some other alignment of the stars occurs so that a decent striker that represents value in Wenger's tortured mind somehow materialises. Else we'll end up with another Welbeck to replace Welbeck, or nobody at all which is probably the most likely outcome as things stand.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Mangala was £42 million. Keep that in mind at all times.

[Power n Glory]

You don't rate Ozil???......I never knew that

You learn something new everyday.